songs about tomorrow
by Yati
Summary: Fifty sentences about Shinn and Stellar, written for the LJ comm 1sentence. Everyone knows what happens to Stellar right? Basically that doesn't happen here. Consider this AU from somewhere mid-series.


01: Air  
"Stellar doesn't want to drown," she tells Shinn as she tries to reach out to him when he steps into the deep end of the pool, and Shinn shakes his head, smiling (and she's a little surprised that she immediately knows what he means: _I'm here; trust me on this one_), so there is nothing more for her to do than to take a deep breath and make her way towards him.

-

02: Apples  
They were staring at the fruit from opposite ends of the table — it was very red and very shiny: Stellar had been absently polishing it with the sleeve of her dress ("It's an odd thing to forbid, isn't it?" asked Shinn, and although Lunamaria had admitted that it _did_ look rather tempting, Rey had proclaimed that he would have preferred bananas instead) — before Stellar decided that she didn't have to place the apple on anyone's head for her to demonstrate her skill with her throwing knives.

-

03: Beginning  
"Maybe you should try groping to get introduced," Shinn had announced to the party at large when Kira had asked him how he had met Stellar, and Athrun was left wondering whether his young friend was either very, very drunk or very, very nervous.

-

04: Bugs  
"So they glow at night, like stars?" she asked, smiling as a firefly alighted on her finger, and he watched her, amazed at the little things she had learned to grow less fearful of, and he murmurs, more to himself than to her, "Yes, just like the stars."

-

05: Coffee  
"Actually, Stellar never even tastes it when she makes it — Stellar thinks it's bitter even with honey — so Stellar just makes it for Shinn and Shinn always drinks it, and Shinn never says anything except 'thank you' so Stellar always thought that Shinn liked it . . . how was Stellar supposed to know that Shinn never liked coffee either?"

-

06: Dark  
"Stellar's not scared," she says, "because Stellar can still see Shinn . . . so Stellar's not scared anymore."

-

07: Despair  
Stellar hesitates, her small hands clasping his, before she tells him, her voice very quiet and and her tone very gentle, "Will Shinn let Stellar tell him something about happiness instead?"

-

08: Doors  
He doesn't need to open any more doors, he thinks; perhaps there is a better universe behind the next one, but he is content with this.

-

09: Drink  
Shinn is looking at her sideways, his half-empty cup of coffee sitting guiltily at the edge of the table, and he asks, "You're not going to tell me now that you actually like carrot juice, are you?" and Stellar brightens and nods, completely enthusiastic, and Shinn — partly mystified but mostly amused — wonders what other little secrets they are keeping from each other.

-

10: Duty  
"I'll always protect you — isn't that what I promised?"

-

11: Earth  
Being able to live by the sea was a good enough reason for Shinn to request a transfer (it had to be to Earth; he had_ refused_ anything else, no matter how blue the skies were in Aprillius or how clear the sea was in Junius) because now he could give Stellar what she had always wanted: an ocean where she could play in, untroubled, and it would be just for her.

-

12: End  
"Stellar really doesn't think it ends there," she tells him as she snuggles against him, and when he lowers the book with some surprise to look down at her, she continues, "because there's always tomorrow, right?"

-

13: Fall  
"I'll catch you," he tells her, smiling, and she closes her eyes and reaches out towards him.

-

14: Fire  
Stellar was blinking in surprise at the sudden shower in their kitchen, and Shinn felt very, very sheepish as he told her that he had found out it _was_ possible to overheat pizza . . . especially when the microwave you had just fixed was tinkered with the same amount of enthusiasm you used to have when servicing the weapons unit of your mobile suits.

-

15: Flexible  
It amazed Athrun, really — Shinn could be so rigid, so unwilling to accept change most of the time, but when it was about Stellar he seemed to adapt to almost anything thrown his way; yet Athrun couldn't begrudge the girl, since he knew she'd do anything for Shinn as well.

-

16: Flying  
"But last time, you fell off a _cliff_!" he protests to her suggestion that they go camp somewhere along the rocky shore, but to his surprise, Stellar laughs and kisses him very lightly on his cheek; she's not afraid now, not anymore, because somewhere along the way, he realises that she may have learned how to fly.

-

17: Food  
"And you actually consider asparagus edible?" he asks her, double-checking, feeling aghast when she nods.

-

18: Foot  
It would be easier, an exasperated Shinn decides, to pamper someone who was not ticklish, because giving a foot massage was his last resort (a giggling Stellar insisted that she enjoyed it very much) and it wasn't exactly a roaring success.

-

19: Grave  
"Stellar thinks it's a nice place to rest," she says, her voice even softer than usual, "it has flowers and it's close to the sea, and Shinn comes so often, so it can't be a very sad place, can it?"

-

20: Green  
"So you don't mind that they're green?" he prods, and as she affirms that she actually likes vegetables, Shinn couldn't help but regard her with both awe and horror.

-

21-22, 24: Head, Hollow, Hope  
Sometimes he wonders if there was something wrong with him — he tries to remember the people dear to him he has lost (Mother and Father and Mayu and all the others . . . oh, so many others that he thinks he can't tell them apart anymore) and he feels nothing, yet sometimes when he stares at night sky he feels like he's shattering into tiny little pieces. Sometimes he feels as if he is not there, and there's only an empty space where he is supposed to be, and he knows that this guilt is unreasonable yet there are times when he thinks that the only thing that he can do is disappear.

But then he remembers Stellar's laughter, and remembers Stellar laughing with him, and he thinks that if she can overcome her inner demons, then so can he.

-

23: Honour  
"Please save her — take her to a warm and happy place and make her forget this ever happened," he begs of the masked man, but the man says nothing and Shinn couldn't afford to believe in anything else, so he lets her go and hopes against hope.

-

25: Light  
The lights in the sky have faded, and he's crying, and Lunamaria is crying, and he thinks of Stellar and hope and tomorrows and he tries to believe that it will all be all right.

-

26: Lost  
"I knew you'd be able to find me."

-

27: Metal  
The blood in his mouth leaves a coppery taste, and he couldn't fight anymore, now that he knows who he's fighting against.

-

28: New  
"This is for you," he said, fumbling to help her unwrap the small box, and Stellar stared at the ring in it, looking pretty much mystified by the whole thing.

-

29: Old  
He placed Mayu's cellphone in the box as he switched on his new one, Stellar looking on, and without looking at her, he answered her unspoken question: "It's Mayu's, after all," he said, his voice threatening to break, "high time I had one of my own, don't you think?"

-

30: Peace  
He's not sure why is it now that he starts to cry, because now he has Stellar with him and she has her arms enveloping him and he is (finally) safe, and the bright, sudden flares have (finally) faded into the nothingness of space, and they will finally — finally — be able to search for their tomorrow.

-

31: Poison  
Shinn wrinkles his nose at the glass of carrot juice Stellar has made, taking a dubious whiff at it before asking her, quite plaintively, "Are you _sure_ it's safe to drink?"

-

32: Pretty  
Stellar never asks him if he thought she was pretty (Lunamaria sometimes did, especially during the days they were at the academy together, and Mayu did too, but of course Shinn had to tell Mayu she was monstrously ugly), and Shinn didn't know whether it was because Stellar knew she was pretty or that she just didn't care.

-

33: Rain  
Shinn doesn't really like the spring showers — they are chilly and they make him think of his mother telling him and Mayu that they were going to catch a cold playing in the rain — but seeing Stellar laugh as she twirls, barefoot, is excuse enough for anyone to get wet.

-

34: Regret  
Of course she regrets, and she regrets a lot of things, some of them only half-remembered in dreams but it is still better than forgetting, especially when she knows that Shinn also believes in the same.

-

35: Roses  
Stellar, strangely enough, didn't seem to care much about roses — she liked dandelions better and she delighted in watching the morning glories bloom each day — and Shinn decided that there really was no need to explain to her what a bouquet of red roses meant.

-

36: Secret  
"Maybe we just don't have any."

-

37: Snakes  
"Of course I'm angry — wouldn't you be?" Shinn grumbled, but Stellar only tilted her head questioningly and he added, "I mean, there were snakes in a mobile suit . . . wherever did they come from!"

-

38: Snow  
"It's cold and damp and it clings to you and then it melts — that's why I don't like it," Shinn grumbles, but Stellar tells him it's pretty, so he lets her drag him outside so she can stare at the snowflakes, wide-eyed and curious, and Shinn decides, grudgingly, that maybe it isn't really that cold and damp after all.

-

39: Solid  
"This is real," he tells her, and she frowns a bit, uncomprehending, but he doesn't mind because this is enough.

-

40: Spring  
"Stellar likes the flowers," she tells him as she concentrates on making a daisy-chain, sitting cross-legged on the grass, and Shinn just lies beside her, watching the clouds as she hums to herself.

-

41: Stable  
"Well, things are peaceful now," Athrun said, watching as Stellar listened intently to one of the orphans while the others crowded Lacus and Kira after being scared away by an exasperated Shinn, and Athrun gave Shinn a sidelong glance before adding, "time to move on and look towards the future, start a family, maybe—" and he was cut short as Shinn choked on his coffee.

-

42: Strange  
"You sure you don't think it's _peculiar_ they're green?" Shinn insists, and Stellar starts to laugh, and Shinn has to finally admit that he's being really childish about the whole thing.

-

43: Summer  
Shinn complains about sunburns and too hot afternoons and hair crusted with salt and sand, but each time Stellar runs along the water's edge, he's there with her, stopping every now and then to pick a pink seashell (he has a bottle-full of them now, and he shakes the bottle a little every now and then just to hear them clink together, and he thinks that it's a miracle of sorts that he has collected that many).

-

44: Taboo  
They don't talk about Armoury One; Shinn isn't sure what Stellar remembers, and Stellar doesn't want Shinn to dwell on the past.

-

45: Ugly  
"Maybe portrait painting isn't the hobby for me?" Shinn said, almost sheepish, as they surveyed his latest attempt at art, and Stellar nodded sagely.

-

46: War  
"It's over now," she tells him, and he just stares at her, not believing, wondering what he is supposed to do with the rest of his life.

-

47: Water  
There's a boat sailing all alone in the middle of the ocean, a speck in the moonlight with nothing but water all around it, and Stellar watches it from her balcony and she's glad she's not lonely like that anymore.

-

48: Welcome  
Stellar brushes off the confetti still on Shinn's head, ruffling his hair in the process, and Shinn looks around the now empty living room and says, almost to himself, "I'm home."

-

49: Winter  
They walk down the beach during winter — the air is chilly and the water is cold, and even if Stellar still insists on getting as close as she could to the surf, she knows better than to actually get wet — and Shinn thinks that everything is peaceful now, and this time, he could almost believe that it will last.

-

50: Wood  
The fire has stopped crackling and Shinn doesn't add another log to it since it doesn't matter now that it's going out — he has finished reading and Stellar is nodding off — but when Shinn tells her to go to bed she asks, drowsily, "but how does the story end?", and he considers it for a while before saying, "with a happily ever after, like all stories should."


End file.
